@hobbit666 said:

See that's what i would do all over my back lol

My back is reserved for a phoenix rising from the ashes. For the most part. That's going to be an expensive piece...

A friend of mine posted she was doing the event on Facebook so I decided to as well! Here is my page! I will be doing the walk from @scottalanmiller 's old school of Onondaga Community College on April 2! Thanks everyone!

http://heartwalk.kintera.org/syracuseny/thanksajdotcom

To encourage everyone, here is me in a fake moustache:

The struggle when your favorite show airs almost every week and there's no end in sight and you have to wait every week for the next episode...damn you One Piece!!! LOL

Laundry and then heading to get a massage and chiro adjustment! I need it so badly!!!

This was brilliant...

@scottalanmiller said in Don't Stay in School:

@dafyre said in Don't Stay in School:

@Minion-Queen said in Don't Stay in School:

There is no place on earth to get away from racism.

I cannot wrap my head around this. I just don't understand why people are so cruel to one another.

It's not always intentional. Sometimes it's just misunderstanding.

Or cultural. Most people are morons, and morons fear what they don't understand instead of taking the time to gain understanding. It's a reflex basically. "Oh, that doesn't make sense to me, so it's stupid and I'm going to hate it." Intelligent people would rather learn about something that simply write it off because it's something they don't know.

@scottalanmiller said in Don't Stay in School:

Oh, is that satire?

The Onion is always satire, but I think they like to use satire to make points.

Good luck!

Watching One Piece on CrunchyRoll!

Youtube Video

The new resume is now batting 100%!

@scottalanmiller said in Non-IT News Thread:

Congrats! When do you start?

I've got to do all the paperwork, etc still, but either this week or next. The owner has to get with one of his guys to start getting me onboarded.

@BRRABill said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

@thanksajdotcom said

First day on the new job. Very excited to see how things go.

Good luck!

@nadnerB said in What Are You Doing Right Now:

Good luck @thanksajdotcom !

Thank you kindly!

@scottalanmiller said in What is New Earth:

@tonyshowoff said in What is New Earth:

@RojoLoco said in What is New Earth:

I've always practiced a policy of "never discuss science with those who subscribe to any religion". This has saved me immeasurable time over the years.

I've known plenty of atheists with piss poor understanding of science. Of course, if one's religion clouds their ability to reason it doesn't really matter, but you can find a lot of die hard conspiracy theorists and flat earthers who are atheists too. There's one famous flat earth guy, I think his film is called "under the dome", anyway he thinks it's aliens, not God which put us in this dome.

Many of those that are religious would argue that atheism must be a religion as it requires faith. Agnosticism has a strong argument for the potential to be religion free. But just as believing in a higher being requires faith, believing there is not one transfers that faith to the universe in such a way that it becomes religious.

One of my favorite quotes to both say and use growing up was that "everyone has faith in something, including atheists". Because either you have faith that there is something else bigger out there, or you have faith their isn't.

@JaredBusch said in What is New Earth:

@tonyshowoff said in What is New Earth:

@RojoLoco said in What is New Earth:

@tonyshowoff said in What is New Earth:

@RojoLoco said in What is New Earth:

@tonyshowoff said in What is New Earth:

@RojoLoco said in What is New Earth:

I've always practiced a policy of "never discuss science with those who subscribe to any religion". This has saved me immeasurable time over the years.

I've known plenty of atheists with piss poor understanding of science. Of course, if one's religion clouds their ability to reason it doesn't really matter, but you can find a lot of die hard conspiracy theorists and flat earthers who are atheists too. There's one famous flat earth guy, I think his film is called "under the dome", anyway he thinks it's aliens, not God which put us in this dome.

Atheism is not an automatic sign of being reasonable or intelligent.

Who said I was atheist? That's as bad an "ism" as all the rest. I am fervently anti-religion, all of them. I believe in science, not in re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-translated stories from thousands of years ago.

Nobody, I never said you were an atheist. I was merely pointing out lack of a religion doesn't mean they're intelligent, which is what you basically said.

Actually, I said I don't discuss science with religious people. Nor do I discuss it with idiots or otherwise unreasonable people. When not at work, I surround myself with intelligent people.

So what are you defining religious as then? Any faith in anything or organised religion only?

I like to torment my religious friends by calling their religion a cult.

I was actually raised in a cult, so I actually have done this and find it hysterical.

@JaredBusch said in What is New Earth:

@thanksajdotcom said in What is New Earth:

One of my favorite quotes to both say and use growing up was that "everyone has faith in something, including atheists". Because either you have faith that there is something else bigger out there, or you have faith their isn't.

I do not have "faith" in science. Science is a thing that is proven. Belief requires a thing that cannot be proven.

The Wikipedia description of faith is generally solid.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith

Faith is confidence or trust in a person or thing; or the observance of an obligation from loyalty; or fidelity to a person, promise, engagement; or a belief not based on proof; or it may refer to a particular system of religious belief,[1] such as in which faith is confidence based on some degree of warrant.[2][3] The term 'faith' has numerous connotations and is used in different ways, often depending on context.

Blind faith is just that. I look at faith much like I do a hypothesis. A hypothesis is a conclusion drawn based on certain information. As new information is gained/discovered, you can revise said hypothesis, and eventually things in science become theories (evolution, gravity, etc). I look at blind faith much as a wild statement with nothing to support it, but I look at faith as believing in something based on certain data. Of course, this is all up to interpretation.

@scottalanmiller said in What is New Earth:

@tonyshowoff said in What is New Earth:

@scottalanmiller said in What is New Earth:

@tonyshowoff said in What is New Earth:

@scottalanmiller said in What is New Earth:

@thanksajdotcom said in What is New Earth:

@coliver said in What is New Earth:

@tonyshowoff said in What is New Earth:

@RojoLoco said in What is New Earth:

@JaredBusch said in What is New Earth:

@scottalanmiller said in What is New Earth:

@JaredBusch said in What is New Earth:

@thanksajdotcom said in What is New Earth:

@JaredBusch said in What is New Earth:

@tonyshowoff said in What is New Earth:

@RojoLoco said in What is New Earth:

@tonyshowoff said in What is New Earth:

@RojoLoco said in What is New Earth:

@tonyshowoff said in What is New Earth:

@RojoLoco said in What is New Earth:

I've always practiced a policy of "never discuss science with those who subscribe to any religion". This has saved me immeasurable time over the years.

I've known plenty of atheists with piss poor understanding of science. Of course, if one's religion clouds their ability to reason it doesn't really matter, but you can find a lot of die hard conspiracy theorists and flat earthers who are atheists too. There's one famous flat earth guy, I think his film is called "under the dome", anyway he thinks it's aliens, not God which put us in this dome.

Atheism is not an automatic sign of being reasonable or intelligent.

Who said I was atheist? That's as bad an "ism" as all the rest. I am fervently anti-religion, all of them. I believe in science, not in re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-translated stories from thousands of years ago.

Nobody, I never said you were an atheist. I was merely pointing out lack of a religion doesn't mean they're intelligent, which is what you basically said.

Actually, I said I don't discuss science with religious people. Nor do I discuss it with idiots or otherwise unreasonable people. When not at work, I surround myself with intelligent people.

So what are you defining religious as then? Any faith in anything or organised religion only?

I like to torment my religious friends by calling their religion a cult.

I was actually raised in a cult, so I actually have done this and find it hysterical.

All religions are a cult. That is the definition of the word.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cult

Yeah, cult isn't a bad word to someone religious. Christianity based on Christ's teachings is just the "Cult of Christ" for example. Or Islam the "Cult of Mohammed."

But to most American Christians, it is a horrible nasty word and they get offended.

American christians are super easy to offend, especially in the south. It can be loads of fun if you feel like tormenting someone.

If you really want to mess with some of their heads, start comparing Christianity and Islam, and argue some of the logical problems in Christianity (such as the crucifixion and resurrection, and the trinity, especially the trinity) and explain how these ideas work versus in Islam. It makes them uncomfortable, sometimes hostile because of the strangeness. It's a whole thing I don't want to derail the thread about, but as a Muslim I think it can be quite funny.

Especially though if they want to quote any violent aspects of the Qur'an, I can find usually the same things in the Bible, sometimes almost word for word since most of the Qur'an comes from the Bible in some form or another. There's plenty of double back flips trying to explain why if the Qur'an says it, it's bad, but if the Bible says it, well that's different.

One easier... just bring up the Council of Nicaea.

This is where the Trinity doctrine came from . Constantine, a lifelong pagan, was trying to unite his empire, and basically imposed immortality of the soul, the trinity, Christmas as Jesus' birthday, etc all to appease to both pagans and Christians. Many Christians refer to this as the real start of "the great apostasy".

You know what's cool? Visited Constantine's birth town last week.

Yeah people love that place, it's alright.

Like Dracula's birth home, it was an accidental discovery.

Romanians stealing more Hungarian culture

Edit: Vampires I mean, not the man specifically

They are apt to suck the life out of their bordering countries.

Pun intended.

@dafyre said in What is New Earth:

@tonyshowoff said in What is New Earth:

@dafyre said in What is New Earth:

I've always reconciled the identity of the Trinity like three puzzle pieces of the same puzzle... You don't say you have three complete puzzles... You have three puzzle pieces. Put them together, and you get one complete puzzle.

Well the problem is the trinity itself is not defined in the Bible, in fact God himself in the Bible claims to be indivisible (Galatians 3:20, Hosea 13:4, Romans 3:3), though of course you can find some contradictions in how the concept of "the son" is explained in various places, even though those also don't quite fit (Isaiah 43:10-11).

It seems to me though that the trinity if itself is fairly inelegant, because when it comes to explaining any other aspect of faith you don't typically need to reach all over the place to build this view point. Furthermore, the concept of the trinity didn't even exist for the first 300 years of Christianity. I think it's the result to attempt to reconcile a lot of issues with viewing Jesus as God himself in the flesh, rather than the Messiah alone.

Yeah. This is one of those things of man trying to describe God when we really just...can't come close to understanding. Did some reading up over lunch and found an interesting read about it... It's kinda lengthy and uses a lot of scripture references... Seems to me to do a good job of describing it.... http://www.gotquestions.org/Trinity-Bible.html

This was the one I sent the person for reference: http://www.ucg.org/bible-study-tools/booklets/is-god-a-trinity/the-surprising-origins-of-the-trinity-doctrine

@tonyshowoff said in What is New Earth:

@dafyre said in What is New Earth:

I've always reconciled the identity of the Trinity like three puzzle pieces of the same puzzle... You don't say you have three complete puzzles... You have three puzzle pieces. Put them together, and you get one complete puzzle.

Well the problem is the trinity itself is not defined in the Bible, in fact God himself in the Bible claims to be indivisible (Galatians 3:20, Hosea 13:4, Romans 3:3), though of course you can find some contradictions in how the concept of "the son" is explained in various places, even though those also don't quite fit (Isaiah 43:10-11).

It seems to me though that the trinity if itself is fairly inelegant, because when it comes to explaining any other aspect of faith you don't typically need to reach all over the place to build this view point. Furthermore, the concept of the trinity didn't even exist for the first 300 years of Christianity. I think it's the result to attempt to reconcile a lot of issues with viewing Jesus as God himself in the flesh, rather than the Messiah alone.

John 14:28 - "...the Father is greater than I am." Jesus here speaking. With one Scripture, he just showed that coeternal, coequal, etc is all made up.

@dafyre said in What is New Earth:

@thanksajdotcom said in What is New Earth:

@dafyre said in What is New Earth:

@tonyshowoff said in What is New Earth:

@dafyre said in What is New Earth:

I've always reconciled the identity of the Trinity like three puzzle pieces of the same puzzle... You don't say you have three complete puzzles... You have three puzzle pieces. Put them together, and you get one complete puzzle.

Well the problem is the trinity itself is not defined in the Bible, in fact God himself in the Bible claims to be indivisible (Galatians 3:20, Hosea 13:4, Romans 3:3), though of course you can find some contradictions in how the concept of "the son" is explained in various places, even though those also don't quite fit (Isaiah 43:10-11).

It seems to me though that the trinity if itself is fairly inelegant, because when it comes to explaining any other aspect of faith you don't typically need to reach all over the place to build this view point. Furthermore, the concept of the trinity didn't even exist for the first 300 years of Christianity. I think it's the result to attempt to reconcile a lot of issues with viewing Jesus as God himself in the flesh, rather than the Messiah alone.

Yeah. This is one of those things of man trying to describe God when we really just...can't come close to understanding. Did some reading up over lunch and found an interesting read about it... It's kinda lengthy and uses a lot of scripture references... Seems to me to do a good job of describing it.... http://www.gotquestions.org/Trinity-Bible.html

This was the one I sent the person for reference: http://www.ucg.org/bible-study-tools/booklets/is-god-a-trinity/the-surprising-origins-of-the-trinity-doctrine

Added to a tab on my laptop!

It's a very long read but it's great information. Very well written IMO.